Sword Art Online - Shadows in the night
by ElectronNinja
Summary: First Fanfic! Sorry if it's a bit OCC. Takes place just before the final battle on floor 76. Contains (1) OC. Rated T for stabbing. Kirito VS OC!


**Shadows in the Night**

A short Sword Art Online fanfic

**A/N: This is my first fanfic, so… sorry if it's crap! Please review! What do you think about a romance fic? I have no experience (T_T) but I THINK I could pull it off.**

**DISCLAIMER: All characters, settings, etc. are owned by A1 Pictures, Aniplex and Reki Kawahara. I only own the OC's and the plot.**

**NOTE: This is just a quick one-shot. If Kirito or Asuna seem a bit OOC then please tell me so I can make them better.**

Kirito woke with a start. He was in a dark room, lying on a bed next to Asuna. It was the night before the clearer's push for floor 76, and he was in a rented room in the city of Collinia, capital of the 75th floor. So, why was he awake? "Oh, this will be interesting" said a dark shadow in the corner of the room. "Hurry, you have 43 seconds till I kill you and move on to your wife". Kirito then noticed a duel counter in the middle of the room, displaying the message "_43 seconds remaining. Duel type: Fight to death_". Kirito quickly equipped his armor "_35 seconds…_". His swords appeared on his back. "_29 seconds…_". He drew his Elucidator & Dark Repulser. "_14 seconds…_". In his haste, he dropped his Dark Repulser. "_11 seconds…_" he reached down and attempted to pick it up, but his fingers missed in the dark. "_5 seconds…_" Almost there. "_4 seconds…_" Kirito straightened his back and entered his fighting stance.

_3 seconds…_

_2 seconds…_

_1 second…_

_START!_

Kirito charged, yelling his fiercest battle cry. The shadow calmly blocked his attacks with a dark purple katana. "You're better than I expected" said the shadow. "Who are you?" Kirito grunted as he tried to disarm his opponent by pushing his sword to the floor. "You can call me shadow, although names don't matter when you're dead" replied Shadow. Kirito grunted and shouted "STARBURST STREAM!", initiating his 11-hit combo. His swords glowed blue as he swung them at Shadow. Shadow whispered something and his katana went black and became wreathed in shadows. The room became darker, even though it was night, as if the sword was sucking in all the light in the room.

As Kirito's two swords collided with Shadow's, he felt as if he was being turned to lead. Starburst Stream finished, and as soon as their swords disconnected, Kirito was fine. _Crap! If I touch his katana I'm instantly slowed_ thought Kirito as he jumped back to dodge a would-be fatal strike. Kirito backflipped over Shadow and swung his Dark Repulser at his head in the air. Shadow didn't have time to charge his sword, and clumsily blocked the strike. _He needs to charge before use! Those shadows must be an original sword skill _thought Kirito as he charged another skill. He swung his Elucidator, which was now glowing yellow, at Shadow, who didn't manage to block this time. A small portion of Shadow's health bar disappeared, but Shadow quickly countered with 2 quick strokes of his sword, which made them even once again.

Kirito jumped, charging his Dark Repulser with the skill Sonic Leap, which launched him at his enemy causing massive damage from the momentum. Shadow blocked, just a planned. Mid-strike, Kirito charged his Elucidator with the skill Counter, a basic skill, but one that caused double damage if you were blocking at the same time. For most people, this was too hard to pull off mid-battle, as you had to charge your sword and then slide it down the enemy's, and force them to move the hilt to their stomach, where you could inflict the most damage. However, Kirito's original sword skill Dual Blades let him block and strike at the same time. He used this technique on Shadow. He had not planned on Shadow using the skill Dark Energies, which disabled an enemy's skill, or, in Kirito's case, skills and charged the blade with all the collected damage of the enemies skills, a 5% boost from Dark Energies and the combined damage of the swords. The trade-off for this skill was an excruciatingly long cool down period and a ban from using that skill for 2 minutes.

Shadow's sword glowed crimson as it charged the powerful skill. Kirito instantly regretted attacking so viciously, but it was too late to change. He just managed to get out of the way, and the attack that would have cut his HP in half instead glanced his shoulder. He was still taken down to early yellow, but quickly countered with a 7-hit, dual-wield skill called Hyper Slash. His swords glowed a vibrant green and he swung at Shadow. 5 of the 7 hits landed, but that was still enough to bring Kirito and Shadow back to even. Kirito followed up with another skill, Crushing Weight, which doubled the weight of his Dark Repulser, causing his sword to deal massive damage but be harder to lift. This rapid succession of hits was possible by Hyper Slash's biggest advantage, the ability to use another skill in quick succession by have a cool down period of 0 seconds. Shadow couldn't even hope to block Crushing Weight's powerful strike, as the cool down period of Dark Energies hadn't expired yet, and blocking without a sword skill active would probably snap his sword. The Elucidator hit Shadow in the shoulder and destroyed a large area of his yellow HP zone.

Dark Energies cool down period expired and Shadow lunged at Kirito, katana charged with the skill Rapid Strike, which doubled its speed. Kirito was forced into the late yellow as he couldn't block the flurry of hits.

The battle continued for a long time, and Kirito & Shadow both took many hits, with Kirito and Shadow eventually both reaching the red zone. "Shadow, stop this. End the duel and I won't come after you" said Kirito. While that was true, he WOULD tell all of K.O.B, and then Shadow would never rest. "Hmm… How about… NEVER!" shouted Shadow, as he charged with his katana with shadows again, and lunged at Asuna. Even though he couldn't hurt her while Elucidatorwas still alive, Kirito lunged at him, swords extended. "Perfect. I can't actually believe that you fell for that" said Shadow as he stabbed Kirito in the stomach. Kirito was instantly slowed and his HP started dropping quickly. "I'm going to kill you, and when I go for your wife, I'll make sure she doesn't wake up" whispered Shadow. That cause Kirito to snap. He screamed "NEVER!" as he charged Starburst Stream. A look of worry crossed Shadows face an instant before Kirito plunged both his swords into his enemy's stomach.

Shadow disintegrated into millions of polygons as Kirito pulled the purple katana from his own stomach. It was now back to normal, no shadow aura around it. Kirito threw the bloodied sword out the window, and drank a couple of high-potency HP potions when he noticed how low HP had been. He had just finished putting his armor and weapons in his inventory when Asuna stirred. "Huh?" she mumbled. "Never mind. Go back to sleep" said Kirito. She lay down and fell asleep. Kirito sighed with relief. She hadn't noticed the blood on his hands. Or the empty HP potion flasks laying on the floor.

Or the crazed look in his eyes.

He washed the blood from his hands, picked up the potion flasks and went back to sleep, vowing never to tell anyone, not even Asuna. And, in time even Kirito forgot the shadow in the night.

**What do you think? Should I write more? Please review and PM me if you want to tell me something. I will (try) to respond to every message as soon as I can!**


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